HK editor and Rappler columnist named outstanding UP alum

The following is an announcement from The Sun-HK, a content partner of Rappler’s #BalikBayan

HONG KONG – Daisy Catherine L. Mandap, editor of The SUN, has been selected to receive the 2014 UPAA Distinguished Alumni Award in Public Service by the University of the Philippines Alumni Association for her work as a journalist and community leader in Hong Kong. 

“We are immensely proud of U.P. alumni like you and are bestowing this award in recognition of your leadership, achievements and contributions in your field of endeavor,” UPAA said in a letter signed by Ponciano E. Rivera, Jr, UPAA president and chairman of the UPAA Search & Awards Committee.

“All these have benefited not only yourself and your profession, but also the University and the community you have chosen to serve,” it added. 

She will receive her award during the General Alumni-Faculty Homecoming and Reunion on June 21 at Ang Bahay ng Alumni, in UP Diliman. She will also be given recognition during the dinner in honor of the awardees hosted by UP President Alfredo E. Pascual on June 19 at the Executive House and during the UP Alumni Council Meeting at Ang Bahay ng Alumni. 

This is the second alumni award she has received. In 2009, Mandap was also given the Outstanding Alumni Award of Quezon City High School. 

The UPAA award highlights a career that has seen her receiving the Hong Kong Chief Executive’s Commendation for Community Service, given personally on Dec. 8, 2012 by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. 

Mandap has also been a Bethune Ambassador of Goodwill since September 2008, in recognition of her fund-raising effort and support for the Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge in HK. 

Mandap finished Bachelor of Arts in Journalism in 1978 and Bachelor of Laws in 1985, both at UP. She also received a scholarship as a writing intern under the Thomas Jefferson Fellowships at East West-Center in Hawaii in 1983. 

Mandap started her journalism career right out of college, as an entertainment editor of Times Journal. She became senior reporter at Philippines Daily Express in 1980. She moved to Business Day in 1986 as assistant editor, where she was elected chaiperson of the Employees Union, whose strike later led to the newspaper closing down. 

Mandap arrived in Hong Kong in 1987 to work as a chief reporter at the Hong Kong Standard. The next year, she became a new producer/editor at Asia Television HK, a position she held for 10 years. 

In 1999, she started working full time as editor of The SUN, to help her husband, publisher Leo A. Deocadiz, run the burgeoning publishing company. In the meantime, however, she kept in touch with international news by working as freelance news writer for Cable News Network (CNN) HK. 

The SUN editorship has not only brought challenges and opportunities for Mandap, it has also opened her eyes to the need to go beyond her mission to deliver the news responsiblyuncovering truths and writing about them without fear, favor or bias. 

This meant being more than a mere mirror that reflects the news as it happens: She has taken sides in pursuit of the Filipino community’s interest. 

Before the first overseas voting in 2003, for example, she campaigned as both chairman of the Philippine Association of Hong Kong and editor of The SUN, to encourage OFWs to register. She also caused the donation of tables for the computers used in the registration and election, and helped provide food for dozens of volunteers who helped administer the process. This has helped Hong Kong top the list of OAV registrations, which continues to this day. 

The SUN website is a testament to stories and exposes that have influenced policies in the Philippines, in the Consulate, and in Hong Kong itself. 

Mandap’s expose in 2007, for example, aborted an attempt to sell the Consulate in Admiralty and transfer it to Sheung Wan. 

The most heartwarming among these stories, however, was a series about children of Filipino domestic helpers who were given right of abode in Hong Kong. 

Mandap herself helped the first of the children to get legal assistance for their quest for residency, and campaigned to encourage the parents of others in a similar situation to apply for residency and change their lives. – The Sun Hong Kong/Rappler.com

Read previous Sun Hong Kong stories published on Rappler

• Hong Kong government must share blame, say migrant workers 
• Half of pregnant domestic workers in HK sacked illegally 
• Is Hong Kong acting like a bully? 
• Tortured maid, migrant workers and Hong Kong
• Manila bus hostage crisis: Who blinked first
• HK domestic workers: A tribute to true heroes 
• Fil-Am violinist new Internet sensation 
• HK Labor Department probes abuse of Filipino migrant worker